All the lED strips They allow us to customize our rooms, furniture and decorations in a simple way. There are many models depending on our needs: from the simplest that only give white light to the most complex strips with RGB systems and compatibility with intelligent voice assistants. If you are looking for information about what strip to buy for each case, or do you need help to install one in your house, keep reading, because you are in the right place.
How can I use an LED strip?
There are several ways to use an LED strip. The most common are these two:
setup decoration
This may end up aging badly, but today, you don't have a good studio if you don't have a few Colored lights. LED strips can improve your room both at the level decorative and personalization as at level ergonomic like diffused light behind your computer screen. There are many possibilities: from lighting up your shelves or your table to even placing strips inside your computer case.
Indirect light
Whether they are used decoratively or not, LED strips they are always used as indirect light. If we do not bounce the light or it reaches our eyes directly, the LED strips will generate an ugly and even quite aggressive light for the eyes.
You can place LED strips under (or behind) the furniture, inside a cabinet to highlight what you keep inside, on top or below a shelf or behind a screen. This last case is one of the most commonly used. It is much more comfortable to look at the television at night if we have a source of diffused light behind it than to watch it without these types of lights. If you are handy, you can even build your own Ambilight system with an LED strip and little money.
What should I take into account when buying an LED strip?
- white or color: There are white strips, RGB strips and even single color strips. The simpler, the cheaper.
- Control: Even the simplest white strip allows brightness control. It can be done using a remote or with commands from a smart speaker, although in these cases, you will have to invest a little more money.
- LED type: each LED model has a specification (SMD). Depending on the type of SMD you choose, you will have a strip capable of making more or fewer colors, as well as your installation will have better or worse energy efficiency.
- Resistance: a strip installed on your desk will not be the same as one designed for outdoors or for a bathroom. Each manufacturer has its recommendations regarding resistance to humidity and water.
- Extension: In general, you will almost always be able to cut or expand your strips to make the perfect setup. But there are exceptions. Find out well before making the purchase.
- Ecosystem: there are very complete strips that can be associated with other services such as music or your computer to change their colors depending on the content you are enjoying.
Best LED strips
Philips Hue Bluetooth Smart Lightstrip Plus – The smart LED strip
Philips lighting products are not cheap, but they are outstanding. This strip measures two meters and is capable of giving 1.800 lumens of intensity. It can be cut to your liking and it is expandable up to 10 meters. They have their own adhesive and it adapts very well to any wall.
This Philips strip is compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple HomeKit via Bluetooth, and can add to your smart home ecosystem, as well as sync with your music or gaming system.
See offer on AmazonGovee LED TV Strip – Smart “Ambilight”
If you have always wanted to have a Ambilight system, but you don't have a Philips TV, this strip from Govee is just what you're looking for. Although there are quite a few tutorials to make a system of this type, this product allows you to build your own colored backlight without the need to program anything.
Basically, the strip is paid to the back of the TV. On the panel we will place a small camera that will record the color changes to reflect them on the wall. Of course it is compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant.
See offer on AmazonGovee LED strip 10 meters – the affordable option
This strip is sold in 5 and 10 meter formats, but we will save a lot of money if we get the latter. It is a basic strip of colors with six different scene modes and control via remote control.
This model is one of the best sellers on Amazon and is a good option if you do not have a smart speaker to control them.
See offer on AmazonIn case you want to use Alexa to turn on, off or change the colors of your LED strip, there is a model including compatibility with Google Assistant and Alexa for a little more price:
See offer on AmazonLepro – The best option if you are looking for a white LED strip
If you're not interested in colors, then look for one white LED strip. In general, these types of strips have color temperatures between 3.000 and 6.000 Kelvin. If you are only looking for cold white or warm white, you can get a strip that does not allow you to regulate the temperature and thus save a few euros.
However, this Lepro model allows you to regulate the temperature and intensity for a very interesting price. It's not smart, but you can associate it with a smart plug to control turning it on and off. This strip is quite interesting to place in a kitchen.
See offer on AmazonHow is an LED strip installed?
LED Strip Arrangement
Unlike a light bulb, LED strips are usually installed so that they are slightly hidden. In general, it is not ideal to use them to give direct light, but to project diffused light onto a surface.
Ideally, stick the strip to the back of a piece of furniture and avoid direct light. If we are going to place the strip inside a display case, we will stick the strip on the shelves so that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. If we are going to place it on our desk or TV cabinet, we will glue it so that cast the light onto the wall. In this way, we will achieve that soft and pleasant light of color that will mainly serve so that our eyes do not get tired so quickly while we use a screen.
Put several LED strips together
Unless you buy a packaged kit, LED strips can be expand as long as the power supply allows it.
Just as we can cut a strip from a point, we can also splice them, as long as we respect the polarity. They can be joined by soldering, using a soldering iron or with a connector for LED strips, which is the ideal solution. There are many models depending on the number of pins your strips have, and they are really cheap.
See offer on AmazonAdhesives for LED strips
Many LED strips come with their own adhesive. However, it may happen that, in certain positions, the glue is not strong enough to support the weight of the strip.
If this is your case, the first thing you have to do is invest in a quality double sided tape. In addition, you can facilitate the installation by passing a little sandpaper on the surface —only if possible and we are not going to make a mess, of course. In addition, it is quite important to clean with isopropyl alcohol the surface before placing the adhesive.
See offer on AmazonInstall an LED strip like a pro
If your goal is to make a more ambitious installation, the ideal is to use aluminum profiles to install the strips. You can install them on the skirting if you want to place the lights flush with the floor or in the angle between ceiling and wall or wall and wall.
With aluminum profiles you will get a much more professional and personalized installation. They significantly increase the final price of the assembly, but it is a long-term investment, because, even if the LED strip ends up breaking down, in the future you will be able to reuse the profiles.
See offer on AmazonAs you may have seen, this post is full of links to Amazon. These are part of our agreement with their Affiliate Program and may earn us a small commission when sales are made through them (without affecting the price you pay). Even so, the selection of products that we have chosen has been made with the intention of facilitating your search for information. The decision to publish and add them has been made, as always, freely and under editorial criteria, without attending to requests from the brands involved.